University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Spring Football Practice Starts Wednesday Afternoon for Golden Eagles
3/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 2, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Preparations for the 2010 season begins for the Southern Miss football team Wednesday afternoon when they take to the practice field for the first of 15 practice sessions this spring.
The Golden Eagles will be working toward their 17th-straight winning season as well as their ninth consecutive postseason bowl appearance. Southern Miss finished 7-6 in 2009 with a berth in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
Practices are slated to take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays over a five-week period, except for spring break March 15-19, with the annual Spring Game set for April 10 at Carlisle-Faulkner Field at Roberts Stadium. Game time is set for 6 p.m.
With the limited practice time during the spring, Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora said that every practice must be taken advantage of to the fullest.
"We are allowed 15 practices so we can't waste any reps," Fedora said. "We need as many reps as possible."
Fedora also said that the team was focused on improvement in every phase, including special teams.
"We have a lot of work to do with our kickers, snappers and holders as well as the extra point and field goal phase of our game," Fedora said. "We must continue improvement in each one of our special teams."
On defense, Fedora wants to see his team get better at what they accomplished last season and that was force 27 takeaways from its opponents, which was ranked among the nation's leaders.
"Defensively, we want to become better tacklers and have to continue to create turnovers," Fedora added. "Our hope is also to find out who our leaders will be on defense and at the same time have improved play from our secondary and linebackers units."
As for offense, Fedora wants to see a greater understanding of what needs to be done to be successful as well as fill some needed holes left by graduation. The 2009 Golden Eagle offense accumulated 5,413 yards, marking the third-straight year Southern Miss has reached the 5,000-yard plateau.
"We want to continue to take care of the football and make sure we come out of spring ball with everybody having an understanding of our offense as well as improving our tempo," Fedora said. "We also have to find out who our four new offensive linemen are going to be."
For the second straight year, the Golden Eagles will take to the road for a pair of its practices. Southern Miss will travel to Ocean Springs High School for the second consecutive season, March 12, while heading north, March 31, for a practice at Clinton High School.
